More Than Just Pores

As if ion channels weren't doing enough on their own—underpinning nerve impulses and muscle contraction—researchers are now finding that they can do even more as team players in the cell.

Voltage-gated ion channels are membrane pores that sense changes in local charge distribution across membranes. They open and close in response, ushering ions into and out of cells to propagate electrical signals. Such channels were once thought to be lonely thoroughfares. But a symposium at . . .